John Abraham is now a click away

Anurag Kashyap, one of Bollywood’s bright lights, is making his new film, No Smoking, in a rather innovative way. The director posts details of the project on his blog and invites cineastes from all over the world to leave their suggestions and creative inputs.

“So I have someone suggesting how to shoot an underwater sequence, someone else writing a song for me and yet others giving me gyaan on so many other vital issues,’’ he says, adding jokingly that the Rs 14-crore film starring John Abraham and Ayesha Takia is “Bollywood’s costliest experiment’’.

Kashyap’s little excursion on the unbeaten track may be the ultimate in democratic direction, but there are many others who have annulled the concept of the director as sole creative master of the ship. Vidhu Vinod Chopra, for instance, is rumoured to have let a couple of his close associates take over the reins from him for portions of his forthcoming Eklavya—The Royal Guard.

“It’s no longer only the director who calls ‘Action’ and ‘Cut’,’’ says a Bollywood insider who’s worked as crew member on several films. “Very often different aspects of a film are individual endeavours all pieced together later.’’

Several masters on board the directorial ship isn’t a new phenomenon for Bollywood—for years now, choreographers have directed and edited song sequences while action directors have done the same with the fight-and-stunt portions (in action films, this adds up to over 50% of a film).

What is unusual is that today more and more directors like Chopra and Kashyap are collaborating with their associates to turn film-making into a joint creative process. For instance, when Kashyap made his first film Paanch in 2003, he had Vikramaditya Motwane direct the songs “because I didn’t know a thing about song direction’’.

Six years ago, Chopra got his associate Ram Madhvani to direct the entire climax of Mission Kashmir. “That’s why you see a total disconnect in styles between the rest of Mission Kashmir and the climax,’’ says Kashyap.

Ad man Madhvani, however, is politically correct. “To say I directed the entire climax is an exaggeration,’’ he smiles. “I just translated Vidhu’s vision on screen—cinematographer Binod Pradhan, Vidhu and I worked on it together. Film-making is a collaborative process and a few like-minded people working in unison can elevate the whole film. And Vidhu is the finest example of a director who can delegate work to an associate without losing control of a project.’’

When Madhvani moved to making his own films, Let’s Talk (2002) and the documentary on Amitabh Bachchan (2006), he had associate and cameraman Sumantra Ghoshal collaborating with him. “Sumantra brings complete objectivity to my work and having him on my set is my biggest asset,’’ he says.

Vipul Shah, who has imported some great white talent like cameraman Peter Fields of the Hollywood blockbuster Troy (2004) and an assistant called Kevin Wesley for Namaste London, is in tandem with Madhvani’s thinking. “Film-making is a collective effort, not a solitary one like painting or writing poetry,’’ he says.

“Having said that, a film is usually one man’s vision and a very capable team of associates can help realise that vision. The idea behind hiring specialised professionals is to leverage their expertise, and for that you have to sometimes entrust them with the entire task.’’

Mahesh Bhatt is probably the trailblazer in this regard. Fifteen years ago, when he was the busiest director in Bollywood and renowned for “directing over the telephone’’, he would actually be present for only 50 per cent of a film’s shoot, leaving his assistants to man the other portions.

“In fact, Jackie Shroff actually had a clause in his contract for a Mahesh Bhatt movie saying that he would act in the film only if Bhatt was present on the sets,’’ says a top actor. Directors like David Dhawan and Mahesh Bhatt, busy with mulitple ventures, have often left their capable deputies to handle the show.

For instance, Milan Luthria, Bhatt’s first assistant, directed the “erotic’’ scenes in Criminal (1995) because Bhatt felt a young man was “more qualified than me to add that touch of erotica to the proceedings’’.

But while delegating responsibility is now in vogue, there are still directors like Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Prakash Jha who don’t allow a single shot to be canned in their absence. “Proceedings come to a complete halt on their sets even if they step out for a loo break,’’ says a unit hand.

Perhaps it is to balance the avant-garde Kashyaps and Chopras that we have the conservative Bhansalis and Jhas—who will not allow a bird to flutter its wings without their saying ‘Action’.